I don't get why McCain is only a few points behind Obama.

To anyone who reads or watches the news, it's clear that McCain, given all his gaffes, is either adversely affected by his age, a fool, or grossly misinformed or all three. It amazes me that given his clearly demonstrated incompetence that he lags behind Obama by only a few points in most polls. How is that so many Americans would vote for such a clearly inept person?

[Rog]

Polls are faulty.

[Nono]

The US electorate is pretty evenly divided into two camps, as demonstrated by recent elections.
Almost half of them voted for GWB fercrissakes.
Why not a lesser dingbat like McCain?

[Gods_Mercenary]

Good point, plus polls are often incorrect. Obama's by far more exciting, but not everyone likes exciting, in the way Obama is.

[maximdewinter]

Quote by: sdbest To anyone who reads or watches the news, it's clear that McCain, given all his gaffes, is either adversely affected by his age, a fool, or grossly misinformed or all three. It amazes me that given his clearly demonstrated incompetence that he lags behind Obama by only a few points in most polls. How is that so many Americans would vote for such a clearly inept person?

All what gaffes by John McCain?

Obama is now running at a rate of one major gaffe a week. The recent one at AIPAC about Jerusalem remaining undivided was a doozy. I wonder why we're not hearing more about this in the news.

This just in:The Obama gaffe du jour is that Barry just canceled a scheduled visit of wounded US soldiers in Germany. Let's see how he bungles this one. He already looks like an idiot in Germany anyway. Anyone remember his comment just two weeks ago in Georgia?:

"You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], ‘Merci beaucoup.’"

So Barry gives a speech today for 200,000 Germans and doesn't even muster a "Guten Tag." lol. Ja Barry, du bist ein echt kluger Narr.

[Luxavius]

You'd think Republicons would realize it's going to take more than a monkey and bullets to dig ourselves out of the hole GW threw us in to. Guess not though.

[Xenophobe]

John McCain has small gaffes, like accidentally saying Iraq instead of Afghanistan, but then compare that to we dropped a bomb(atomic) on Pearl Harbor or of course the 57 states.

What does McCain got, the simple word mix and saying Iran trained Al Qaeda. Obama has many gaffes.

[Luxavius]

Quote by: Xenophobe John McCain has small gaffes, like accidentally saying Iraq instead of Afghanistan, but then compare that to we dropped a bomb(atomic) on Pearl Harbor or of course the 57 states. What does McCain got, the simple word mix and saying Iran trained Al Qaeda. Obama has many gaffes.

I'm not sure you can call McCain's mistakes "gaffes", though. I wouldn't expect someone who graduated 894/899 in their academy to have a memory or an intellect beyond a 5th grader.

[tdod]

Perhaps it is because being a president is not a matter of eloquence, but rather one of substance. Just possibly.


Additionally, there is the fact then anyone who issues as many comments and delivers as many speeches as a presidential nominee is bound to have their own gaffes. For example:
YouTube - Obama Claims He's Visited 57 States

[Occam]

Did anyone notice in McCain's published medical history, among the list of medications, Aricept? The idea of a presidential candidate taking a prescription to slow down the progress of Alzheimer's certainly worries me.

[Thanatos]

Nobody speaks perfectly all the time. The problem with McCain is his policies...although if the bit about Aricept is true there might be a problem.

[evensaul]

Quote by: Thanatos Nobody speaks perfectly all the time. The problem with McCain is his policies...although if the bit about Aricept is true there might be a problem.

...and the problem with Obama is his policies...

pro-abortion
in favor of higher gas prices
in favor of open borders
in favor of higher taxes on small business
in favor of higher taxes on big business
against actually winning in Iraq/Afghanistan

My guess is that McCain is actually ahead by a couple points right now. There are a lot of people, white and black, who will tell pollsters and friends that they'd vote for him, but when they actually get in the booth they won't. It's called the "Bradley effect", from when a black mayor of LA was predicted by the polls to win the race for governor, but didn't.

[Thanatos]

Quote by: evensaul ...and the problem with Obama is his policies... pro-abortion

Realize that this doesn't bother everybody.

in favor of higher gas prices

No, just aware that McCain's plan to cut gas taxes is a worthless gimmick and that the only solution is alternative energy.

in favor of open borders

He's also in favor of eating roast babies with mint jelly and garlic mashed potatoes. I'm at a loss for words.

in favor of higher taxes on small business

Did I mention he takes his babies with summer squash?

in favor of higher taxes on big business

And lower taxes for everybody else, even smallish businesses. Rock on Obama, rock on.

against actually winning in Iraq/Afghanistan

Actually he's in favor of pulling troops out of Iraq to try to save Afghanistan. He talks about this quite a lot.

My guess is that McCain is actually ahead by a couple points right now. There are a lot of people, white and black, who will tell pollsters and friends that they'd vote for him, but when they actually get in the booth they won't. It's called the "Bradley effect", from when a black mayor of LA was predicted by the polls to win the race for governor, but didn't.

Enjoy your paracosm.

I don't think I like this strawman the right is attacking. He sounds kind of unlike the person I plan on voting for. I suppose this whole show is a good sign; you usually build a strawman fallacy when you can't completely beat the reality...

[stevemckay]

Quote by: Occam Did anyone notice in McCain's published medical history, among the list of medications, Aricept? The idea of a presidential candidate taking a prescription to slow down the progress of Alzheimer's certainly worries me.

Could you please provide a link that mentions this? All I can find on Google are other message boards that mention the same thing. I would really like to see something semi-official like the actual reports or something from a media source. If verifiable this will change my vote.

I would think if true then him taking office may be unconstitutional... which if I was a conspiracy guy would make me wonder if the eventual VP nominee is actually the intended real president? Nah.

[evensaul]

Quote by: Thanatos Realize that this doesn't bother everybody.

Just about 60% of the population. I think he even voted against limiting partial birth abortion. That would put it above 80%.

Quote by: Thanatos No, just aware that McCain's plan to cut gas taxes is a worthless gimmick and that the only solution is alternative energy.

McCain wants to increase drilling, increase alternative energy, and reduce the gas tax. Sounds pretty comprehensive. Obama is against increased production and has no problem with $5 per gallon gasoline. He just says we got to that price "too fast"

Quote by: Thanatos He's also in favor of eating roast babies with mint jelly and garlic mashed potatoes. I'm at a loss for words.

No, he wants higher taxes on anyone who has worked hard to build a business, to give more money to people through the "earned income program" who don't pay taxes to begin with. People who don't pay a dime in income tax get thousands of dollars in tax refunds. That makes a lot of sense.

Quote by: Thanatos Did I mention he takes his babies with summer squash?.

And he wants to take "excess profits" from oil companies. Which means he'll take earned dividend money from all of the small and larger investers who own stock in energy companies. Oil companies won't suffer. The millions of ordinary citizens who own stock will.

Quote by: Thanatos And lower taxes for everybody else, even smallish businesses. Rock on Obama, rock on.

And he'll raise the minimum wage which will put many, many small businesses completely out of business. Eliminating millions of lower paying jobs will do wonders for unemployment, won't it?

Quote by: Thanatos Actually he's in favor of pulling troops out of Iraq to try to save Afghanistan. He talks about this quite a lot.

Obama said the surge of troops in Iraq would fail. It has succeeded despite all democrats predicting failure and claiming the war was lost. Obama has not once said we should "win" in Iraq. He only wants to cut and run, and allow the country to fall into civil war.

Quote by: Thanatos Enjoy your paracosm..

Anything would be better than the socialist disaster you liberals would lead us to.

Quote by: Thanatos I don't think I like this strawman the right is attacking. He sounds kind of unlike the person I plan on voting for. I suppose this whole show is a good sign; you usually build a strawman fallacy when you can't completely beat the reality...

We don't need a new straw man. The Obama Scarecrow without a brain is a good enough target.

[tivodan1116]

Quote by: Xenophobe John McCain has small gaffes, like accidentally saying Iraq instead of Afghanistan, but then compare that to we dropped a bomb(atomic) on Pearl Harbor or of course the 57 states. What does McCain got, the simple word mix and saying Iran trained Al Qaeda. Obama has many gaffes.

Yup, small gaffes, like supporting a pointless, unwinnable war we went into based on bogus evidence and which has now cost us 4,000 Americans.

Tiny little gaffes like that?






Anyway, the race is close because most Americans think of political elections like some kind of f**king team sport, where it's more important to root for your "team" than to actually investigate the people that they're voting for... The RNC says this guy is a small-government conservative? Well shucks, they're my team... Can't go against that!

[Burning Giraffe]

Quote by: sdbest To anyone who reads or watches the news, it's clear that McCain, given all his gaffes, is either adversely affected by his age, a fool, or grossly misinformed or all three. It amazes me that given his clearly demonstrated incompetence that he lags behind Obama by only a few points in most polls. How is that so many Americans would vote for such a clearly inept person?

I think it all comes down to whether or not people support Obama. Obama is an extremely divisive individual, so people will either vote for him or they will vote against him. McCain will get 95% of the votes against Obama and that helps McCain. For the most part, McCain is a no-show in this election. What has he done really? Nothing. He hasn't even gone after the Republican Base. He's simply relying on Obama to do enough damage to himself that once the debates comes around, McCain will have enough ammunition to weaken Obama with Independents and pull off the upset.

HOWEVER - Yes, Obama and McCain are close in the national polls, but national polls don't mean squat. Obama is still doing quite well in the Electoral College estimates.

[Clarence]

excellent commentary

[loser]

How is that so many Americans would vote for such a clearly inept person?

How could any American even consider voting for a Muslim extremist? A vote for Obama is a vote for the destruction of America.

How in Sam Hill could Obama have even won the Democratic nomination is a better question.

[grandpa]

Quote by: loser How could any American even consider voting for a Muslim extremist? A vote for Obama is a vote for the destruction of America.

He is not a Muslim. Anyone with a brain should be able to understand that. And, if Obama will win, I doubt it'll lead to the "destruction of America," at least no more than any other candidate.

Grandpa h.